The fossil fuel divestment campaign has broken a new record at COP21:
More than 500 institutions representing more than $3.4 trillion in
assets have made some form of divestment commitment according to 350.org and Divest Invest, two organizations coordinating the growing movement.
Bill
McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, spoke today at a COP21 side event
announcing the divestment commitments of more than $3.4 trillion. Photo
credit: Stefanie Spear
The new numbers are another impressive
leap for the divestment effort, although campaigners are quick to point
out that some of the commitments
are only partial divestments and the $3.4 trillion represents the total
amount of assets represented by institutions, not the amount of money
divested, which is difficult to track due to varying degrees of
disclosure.
Today’s announcement is another sign in the early days of the Paris climate summit that investors are reading the writing on the wall and dramatically shifting capital away from fossil fuels and towards clean, renewable energy.
On Monday, Bill Gates and a group of investors announced the launch of a multi-billion dollar private sector coalition, Breakthrough Energy Coalition, to
accelerate clean energy innovation. Other voices, including many of the
world’s most vulnerable countries, are demanding that the Paris
agreement send a clear signal that the age of fossil fuels has come to
an end and the dawn of renewables is irreversible. MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment